


An Old Reflection

by InkyStardust



Category: Ninja Sex Party - Fandom, Skyhill
Genre: Skyhill - Freeform, ninja sex party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-24 14:44:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7512271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyStardust/pseuds/InkyStardust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan suddenly finds himself in his old apartment from college, with no knowledge of how he got there. And he runs into an awfully familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Familiar Face

**Author's Note:**

> i always think about dan talking to his younger self and telling him that things will get better in his future. idk. it makes me emotional thinking about it so i decided to write out how i think it might go. hope you enjoy!

Danny stood still in the middle of the stage, gazing at the gigantic crowd before him as vivid, bright stage lights glimmered in his hazel eyes. There were _so many people_ … thousands upon thousands of tightly-packed bobbing heads and waving arms, like millions of tiny moving dots meticulously stippled on canvas in an elegant pointillist painting. Thousands of joyful voices shouting and applauding, their words and cheers all blending together into one huge glorious roar that charged the concert hall with thrilling electricity, making the ground rumble beneath people’s feet. Adrenaline surged through his blood. Time seemed to be moving so slowly, like he was experiencing this moment in slow-motion.  

 

This was such a surreal feeling, it felt unreal. But it _was_ real, and that’s what boggled his mind so much.

 

This was real. This was happening. His wildest dreams were coming to life right before him.

 

He felt as though there were dozens of fireworks exploding inside of his chest; he’d never felt such an intense feeling of happiness within him at one moment until now. Staring out at the crowd, hearing them cheer for him… he shut his eyes to bask in the marvelous moment, to listen to the crowd and let the roars of his fans flood into his ears. He took in a deep breath through his nose, and as he went to exhale, the crowd had just… stopped. Completely, abruptly stopped. As though he had just went deaf or something. All at once, the electric feeling had left; it felt like the entire environment around him had drastically changed. Startled by the sudden change, he snapped his eyes wide open. There was no crowd. No stage lights. No one. In fact, he was no longer in the concert hall, no longer standing on a stage. He was in a room of some sort. Dan’s eyes darted frantically around to survey his surroundings.

Piles of clothes littered the white carpet. Dozens of posters, jerseys, and helmets of the New York Giants hung on blue walls, some placed on wooden dressers or in glass cases, if they were important enough. A bed lay in a corner of the tiny room. It was a bit messy, but thankfully, no one was laying in it. This room, it was… familiar. Extremely familiar. And for a few seconds, Dan boggled his mind trying to remember what felt so familiar about it. Then it hit him. A feeling of nostalgia rushed through Dan’s body, tingling under his skin. A cold chill ran ran through him, lingering in his bones. This was the bedroom from his old apartment, from college.

A memory flashed in his mind; he recalled lying in that bed for many, many nights, staring blankly up at the ceiling, and rarely ever finding the mental strength to leave his apartment for a few months. Depression. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. These were the reasons for it. A small knot formed in his stomach at the memory of those few shitty months. 

He looked down at his clothes and body to see if he had changed in any way. The sparkly, glittery blue jumpsuit that he was wearing during the concert was replaced with his normal, everyday street clothes: jeans, a grey t-shirt, his leather jacket, and those ugly grey sneakers that everyone hated. He wrinkled his forehead slightly, wondering how and why, but especially how, his clothes had changed, but decided that that was the least of his worries at the moment. He started walking around the room, stepping over clothes, tracing his fingers along the walls. As he approached his old dresser, he delicately picked up a few random items and examined them, having memories come back to him in sudden rushes- his old watch, his flip-phone, his favorite coffee mug, some fantasy novels, a few Rush CDs- and gently put them back down afterwards. It made him chuckle, looking at all of these old things, recalling some of the good old days, or funny memories that they held. He couldn’t help but smile as a lovely warm feeling sprouted in his chest, and spread all over him. Dan went to turn around and go look at a few other things when a blue spiral notebook, lying on the dresser, caught his eye. He picked it up, and flipped through a few pages and stopped on one that had a lot of writing on it. He began skimming through the handwriting, and beamed brightly when the realization came over him. This was his old lyric book. He’d written down tons and tons of songs and lyrics in it. He remembered those late nights where he’d stay up all night in his bed with only his bedside lamp as a source for light, scribbling down lyrics in pen, crossing certain words or sections out and replacing them with better ones. His eyes ran across the page, scrutinizing the sloppily-written lyrics that would later become one of his personal favorite Skyhill songs.

 

“Who are you?”

 

His heart practically exploded out of his chest at the sudden voice that broke the calming silence of the room. Dan quickly closed the book and spun around to face the sound of the voice. He saw someone standing in the doorway, wearing a black Rush t-shirt and jeans. It was… himself. The mid-twenties, short-haired, stoner version of himself, staring with fearful wide eyes at him. 

Dan would’ve replied, if he knew what to say. But he didn’t. For one, he couldn’t believe that he was staring at a younger version of himself. And even if could believe it, how would he get the younger Dan to? It’s not like he could just say, ‘Hey! I’m you from the future!’ and actually expect him to believe it. So, he would blankly stare at his younger self for a quick moment, before deciding that the only real choice he had was to try and convince him of it.

“I’m… you… from the... future?...” he said quietly, but in a tone that implied that he was asking a question rather than answering one. He pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows a bit, hoping that he’d believe him, but also expecting some sort of negative reaction.

The younger Dan wrinkled his forehead and furrowed his brows confusedly. He opened his mouth to reply, but instead tilted his head and scrutinized the older man’s facial features. He did seem to resemble him a lot, and he still had the same lanky figure as he did.

“You’re joking… right?” the younger Dan asked, stepping inside the room towards his older self.

“I mean, you do look like me, like an older version of me. But I have to be dreaming.” The short-haired Dan ran a hand through his brown hair. “Like, there’s no way that this is real.”

 

Real.

 

Dan hadn’t even thought about whether this was all real or not. I mean, it couldn’t be, right? This _had_ to be a dream! Time travel isn’t possible, it’s impossible to be able to talk to yourself from a different time, right? But it all felt so real; it didn’t feel like a dream. But it had to be. Was he still standing on stage in reality? And if so, what was he doing in all this time? Was time stopped in his reality?

 

… Was _this_ his reality?

 

No, that’s impossible. Maybe this isn’t a dream, but this certainly isn’t real. And that was all he could wrap his head around at that moment. None of that had occurred to him until now. 

“Okay,” Dan began, lightly tossing the notebook onto the bed beside him. “I know this is probably-- well,” he did that cute thing where his eyes widen a little bit, and his shoulders lift some, as he averted his gaze to avoid awkwardness, “it _is_ , pretty hard to believe. I can imagine that.” He looked back up at him. “But you have to believe me, I really am from the future.” Dan figured that his younger self would believe him more if he sounded confident in what he was saying, even if he wasn’t absolutely sure of it, himself.

The younger Dan would just sort of stare at him for a while, looking him up and down, taking note of every small detail of him. “I kinda believe you. I want to.” He walked up to the older Dan, and cautiously poked his chest. Then his arm, then his face, and a few other places on his body. The older Dan raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

“So, you’re tangible, at least.” young Dan said, laughing nervously and taking a step back now. “J-Just to be sure, though- uh, tell me, like, a secret, or something that only I know about right now.”

“Alright,” the tall one responded with hesitance. He took a short moment to think of something, then snickered to himself a little bit. “Okay,” he began, scratching his head and messing with his hair while smiling.

“You-- err, I, broke my-- your-- whatever, you know what I mean-- you broke your neck trying to suck your own dick a few years back.” He could barely finish the sentence before he erupted into giddy laughter, his cheeks rising and his eyes squinting from laughing so hard.

The younger Dan’s eyes widened; his face was immediately drained of its color and left pale with utter shock.

“And after you recovered from it, you tried it again, and you broke your neck again!!” Dan said between chuckles, snorts, and squeals, doubled over in laughter.

By now, the shorter-haired Dan’s mouth hung gaping open in disbelief and embarrassment, but mainly the latter.

The taller of the two forced himself to calm down his laughing fit. He had to take a few breaths to regain his composure, though he still had a big goofy grin on his face. “Okay, do you believe me now?”

All the younger Dan could do was slowly nod his head, his mouth still hanging open, staring with widened eyes. “Yeah... You’re definitely future me. I haven’t told anyone about that.”

“Yet.” The older Dan finished, his smile stretching farther across his face. “You will, in the future.

“I will?” the short-haired one asked, perking up. “Oh, my God, I actually tell someone about that?!” 

“Yup!” replied older Dan, snickering a little bit. “In fact, you tell a lot of people.”

“How… many people?” young Dan asked, curiously.

“Uhh, just a few million.” the large-haired one responded in a sly, nonchalant tone. He watched as his younger self freaked out, laughing a bit at his reaction. This is gonna be an interesting talk.


	2. Dreams Come True

“Okay… I still don’t get what’s going on.” The younger Dan admitted as he sat cross-legged in the middle of his bed, staring at the older version of himself standing just a few feet from the bed.

“You and me both.” 

A brief silence lingered in the tiny bedroom until the shorter-haired Dan spoke up again. “So,” he began, his forehead wrinkling slightly in thought, “you were on stage performing, and then, out of nowhere, you just… appeared here?... God, this is weird.” He hung his head and ran a hand through his short curly brown hair, shaking his head with disbelief.

The older of the two could only shrug, defeatedly, in response. This certainly was weird. Hell, weird was a bit of an understatement, in fact. None of this made sense, and there was no explanation for any of it- none that he could think of, at least. A knot formed in his stomach at the thought of what was happening in reality. Did he pass out on stage? Was he still just standing there? How much time had passed? His mind raced with worry and panic. He lightly exhaled a sigh through his nose to calm the rising anxiety in his chest.

 The short-haired Dan looked down in silence for a bit, trying to wrap his head around everything, when he suddenly gasped and perked up, looking up quickly at the taller man. 

“Wait, wait--! You were _performing?_ ” he asked, leaning forward a bit and shooting a wide-eyed gaze of awe and shock towards his older self. “Like, on a stage? Actually in front of people?! Singing songs!?”

A huge dorky smile stretched its way across the older Dan’s face. A strange feeling of pride and accomplishment washed over him; he remembered how much of a wild dream it was for him to perform on a real stage one day.

 

That’s when everything sort of hit him.

 

He was actually staring at the younger version of himself, the version of himself who hadn’t gathered his life together quite yet, who still hadn’t met his best friends in the world, who hadn’t conquered his dreams, who hadn’t experienced the greatest joys of his life yet. He was staring at the version of himself going through the worst part of his life, struggling to get through every day with OCD and depression. He was staring into the eyes of a young adult who thought that his future held nothing of value or importance. He looked at himself, and realized; he made it. He was able to get through that rough patch of his life. He survived- and not only did he survive, but he went on to _live._ Not simply to just exist, but to live. To live his wildest dreams and be happy, so, so unbelievably happy. He could feel tears of joy already welling up in his eyes.

 

He did it.

 

He did what he never thought was possible in his life- overcome his pain and suffering, and live in peace and happiness.

 

He hadn’t even realized how captivated in thought he was until his younger self spoke again.

 

“WELL?!” the younger Dan asked, his voice shaking with excitement as he leaned even closer, acting like a small curious child.

The older of the two chuckled before giving his response. “Yeah, yeah! I was performing at Madison Square Garden with my bandmate. It was so fuckin’ amazing.”

The short-haired Dan’s eyes widened at this. “WHAAAAT?! MADISON SQUARE GARDEN?” He threw his arms in the air. “THAT’S, LIKE, THE GRANDEST STAGE OF THEM ALL!! AND YOU WERE PERFORMING THERE?!”

God, this was adorable. He sounded like a giddy little kid, and it warmed Dan’s heart to see his younger self flipping out like this.

“I know! Crazy, right?”

The younger Dan patted the spot beside him on the bed, gesturing for the other Dan to sit there. He complied, walking over to the bed, climbing on it, and sitting down next to him.

After adjusting his sitting position to face his older self, the younger Dan would say, hands folded in his lap and his countenance gleaming with glee and curiosity, “Tell me more, please!”

“Alright,” the older Dan replied, grinning. “In a few years, a LOT of good things are going to happen to you. Things will definitely get so much better. One of those things, is that you’ll meet one of your bestest friends in the world, and you’re gonna start an amazing band with him, and that band is gonna become a worldwide sensation. You’re gonna have so many loving fans, and you’re gonna go on a bunch of crazy adventures, and achieve your wildest dreams.”

Brown eyes gleaming in amazement, the younger Dan listened carefully to what his older self had to say, barely moving a muscle, his eyes locked onto the other man attentively.

“Everything won’t happen all at once, though.” the older Dan warned. “There will be ups and downs, fails and triumphs. You’ll end up being in a few bands that don’t go far, but you’ll eventually be in one that does. And it’ll all be worth it.”

“Well,” the younger Dan began, “how will I know which band is going to be… ya’ know… _that_ band, like, the one that’ll become successful?” 

There was such a unique feeling of awkwardness that the older Dan felt at that moment. It was as though he was trying to explain the plot of a complicated movie or TV show or book, without accidentally spoiling it for his younger self. He’d never imagine that he’d have spoiler alerts for his own life story. He laughed at this thought internally.

“You’ll just have to wait and see, my friend.” was his only reply. 

“GAAHH.” the short-haired Dan yelled out, throwing his head back in frustration. “Seriously?!” He bought his head back to its normal position, looking back at older Dan.

The older Dan laughed at this. “I mean, I can’t tell you which band is gonna get far and which band won’t, because that might, like, alter the future or something.” For a brief moment, Dan was reminded that he was, indeed, talking to his younger self from a different time. Would all of this affect his reality? Hell, was any of this even real? Did it not matter? He didn’t want to take any chances, and he also didn’t want his mind to go down that train of thought. He shook off the thought.

“Pleeeeeaaaaasse, tell me!!” the younger Dan whined, his body tensing up. “I need to know, please! Or at least just a hint?!”

“... _Alright,”_ the older Dan gave in, causing his younger self to throw his arms in the air and cheer in that cute way that he does. He laughed, and said, “I’ll give you just a small hint. You’re going to meet an awesome fucking guy named Brian. Brian Wecht. When you meet him, you’ll start a band with him. And that’s gonna be the band that becomes a huge worldwide success.”

“Whoa. So is that the band that you were performing for? The one at Madison Square Garden?”

“Yup. Him and I.”

“Just the two of you?”

 “Uh-huh!” He nodded, smiling. 

“Whoooaaa.” The younger Dan let his jaw drop in awe. “That’s so cool. So, I’m assuming he’s one of the best friends that I’ll meet in a few years?”

“Oh, most definitely.” older Dan replied, nodding. 

“Oh, my GOD!!” the younger Dan yelled, letting his upper body fall backwards onto the bed with a tiny bounce. “Fuck, dude. I can’t believe this shit really happens. I can’t even believe this shit, dude… fuck!” He stared up at the ceiling with blank wide eyes, trying to comprehend everything he’d just heard. “That’s fucking insane… I really make it? Like, I’m able to go on tours and do concerts and shit? With my future best friend?” He sighed under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief. “Wow. Just… wow.” 

“Yeah, dude!” the older Dan said with enthusiasm, looking at his younger self laying on his back. “I told you, things are gonna get better. I promise you. And that’s not even all of it.”

“What?” the younger of the two croaked out in confusion. “What do you mean?” 

“Not only are you a well known singer, but you’re also a well known Youtuber.” 

“A… You..tube..r?” He lifted himself back up off the bed and faced the older Dan, his eyebrow furrowed, and his face wrinkled in confusion. “What’s that?”

 

_Oh, boy_.

 

Dan inhaled, preparing himself for a looooong explanation.


End file.
